VyprVPN Review

$5.00/Month

Golden Frog (GF) provide a virtual private network known as VyprVPN that allows you to hide you IP address and geographical location, allowing you to have unprecedented access to the internet, getting you past content filters and restrictions. VyprVPN provide has over 700 servers in over 70 different countries across the 6 continents, with a total of 200,000 shared IP addresses.

This reach is massive and gives you plenty of servers to choose from no matter where you are in the world. In addition, VyprVPN has a whole host of other features, such as 24/7/365 customer support, unlimited server switches and downloads, strong encryptions and various security protocols, speedy connections and multi-device compatibility. All features will be reviewed throughout.

Pricing and Packages

GF’s pricing is a little different to other VPN services that I have reviewed, with the cheapest option being the standard vyprVPN plan for $5/month for a year plan, which is relatively cheap, if not industry standard. The interesting thing about Golden-Frog’s price plans and packages is that they discriminate between plans, and you will not receive the same features if you were to choose one plan over the other.

With VyprVPN, they have one plan that gives you the standard VPN service with 3 connections, whereas the other plan gives you the VPN service with 5 connections as well as their cloud and chameleon technology which will be talked about later. Nonetheless, prices of VyprVPN still go down as you commit more to their services, as with most VPN provides, and they have two plans with both monthly and annually packages.

The standard vyprVPN package gives you just the VPN and starts off with an annual plan of $5 a month, which is fairly cheap. The plan then goes up in price if you choose the monthly option of $9.95, which is a little expensive. The second package has an annual plan of $6.67 a month and gives you access to Chameleon and The Cloud, as well as 5 connections. This packages monthly plan, however, is very expensive and comes in at $12.95 a month.

Payment Options

Any good VPN service should offer a range of payment options for its customers to use, as some customers prefer to use a payment gateway that is safer than the standard credit/debit card payment. A VPN service is dedicated to keeping you safe on the internet and this safety should also be present on their website and payment screen, preventing you from being scammed and stolen from. Unfortunately, Golden Frog’s payment options are slim and only allow you to pay through 3 gateways: credit/debit card, Alipay and PayPal.

Admittedly, PayPal is one of the safety ways to pay on the internet despite being a third-party application. PayPal allows you to manage your spending and balance as well as claim refunds if you didn’t receive the product. However, it is disappointing to see a lack of Bitcoin, as this is the safest and most private way to pay on the internet, as a cryptocurrency doesn’t require the use of personal data, meaning you cannot be traced.

Setup and User friendliness

Setup was easy and took under 5 minutes to complete. Once you have paid for your plan, you will be given cool, personalised dashboard that you are available to navigate through and download the software. This dashboard also allows you to configure your account settings and to download Cyphr (their encrypted messaging app). Once you are given the option to download the VPN, you must choose the correct system to run it on, I chose Windows as that is what I had running at the time. The setup is easy, just follow the installation wizard, choosing a location to store the file and creating a desktop shortcut.

Once the installation is complete, you will be greeted by the client which will ask you to sign in. Once all that is complete, you are good to go. In addition, I wasn’t required to restart my computer for the installation to complete, which is always nice.

I really liked the client and I thought it was slick, modern and looked like an advanced piece of technology. The client was very easy to navigate and gave me the option to connect to the fastest server which was closest to me, or the option to choose a location from one of the many options by clicking the little location icon up top. The locations tab also gives you the option to search the locations by region, which helps find countries faster.

However, despite these amazing options, the ‘fastest connection’ option didn’t work for me and I had to search for the UK server myself, which was quite disappointing. Once connected, the client will display your encryption and upkeep on a little graph which can be expanded, and also tells you whether you have the NAT firewall active.

The settings tab had tons of options, and gave me plenty of ways to customise my experience. I was able to control my auto-connect options, enable a kill switch and could even make the client auto-connect when I was on public Wi-Fi. The customisation for security was adequate and I was able to choose from various protocols including Chameleon.

There was the option to use third-party DNS and prevent DNS Leakage. There is also an advanced section which should not be touched unless you are a VPN veteran. Overall, I was very impressed with the client and it is definitely a selling point.

The mobile version were very similar, but the Android app was considerably more developed than the IOS counterpart, with the IOS version being limited to IPsec security protocols.

Servers and Speeds

As mentioned before, VyprVPN has a massive range in terms of servers and server locations, having over 700 servers in 70+ countries worldwide. This crazy amount of servers allows users to connect from just about anywhere in the world and allows them to bypass content filers and country restrictions.

In addition, even with all these servers, connections were fine and didn’t drop off. The only issue I had was connecting to the ‘fastest server’ near to me, which failed to connect at all. However, I was able to connect to the UK manually no problem. Speeds were impressive maintaining a solid 30MBPs with minimal drop off around Europe. And you can easily choose the Server Location via their Client or App.

However, despite the claims, VyprVPN is probably not the fastest network in the industry. Furthermore, you’d be glad to hear no DNS and IPv6 leaks were found. Overall, I am impressed with their service.

Compatibility

Depending on the plan you chose, VyprVPN gives you the option to connect to a range of devices and allows you to have a maximum of 5 simultaneous connections depending on the plan. VyprVPN’s device compatibility to not as impressive as some other provides by any means, but it does have a number of options, including Windows, Mac, IOS, Android and many TVs and Routers.

As we live in a digital age where we are rapidly moving away from laptops and computers towards our mobile devices, it should be an industry standard to see a VPN provider catering towards our mobiles. For the various devices, setup guides can be found on their website as well as the dashboard.

Customer Support

Like many good VPN services, Golden Frog offers a great support system that offers 24/7/365 support for its customers and users. VyprVPN has a very good system and allows its users to get support through live chat, a ticket based system, FAQs and troubleshooting.

They also have a range of helpful setup instructions on their support page. It’s nice to see a live chat option as many providers seem to be doing away with it. They also have a community page where you can ask questions to the community for help, which is always a bonus. I tested their support with a question and their logs and received an instant reply which was good to see. However, the response felt a little robotic.

Privacy and Security

Security and privacy is a VPN’s primary purpose and the reason they are required in the first place. VyprVPN’s security is very tight, especially as the VPN service is based in Switzerland which a praised for its great laws in regards to internet privacy. However, the company ‘Golden Frog’ is actually US based which leaves it exposed to US laws which require companies to hand over any data upon request.

Nonetheless, VyprVPN’s technical security is great and offers the industry standard of AES-256-bit encryption and digital certificates for data authentication.

There are various security protocols to choose from, including OpenVPN, IPsec, PPTP and Chameleon, with OpenVPN and Chameleon being the best choices to choose as they are the fastest and most reliable. Chameleon is even better as it is better at masking VPN traffic. VyprVPN also has its own DNS servers and even gives you NAT firewall protection for free with every purchase. The issues with their security, however, are the fact they keep logs for 30 days, and are against P2P file sharing.

Free Trial and Refund Policy

You will happy to hear that VyprVPN offers a free trial for all its packages for up to 3 days. This is great and offers a unique selling point for the software. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any sign of a money back guarantee on their website, which is strange and disappointing as this type of refund is very common in the industry.

Conclusion

VyprVPN is an excellent service and has a whole host of amazing features that will keep you safe on the web. The provider has loads of sever locations around the world allowing you to connect from anywhere, and has a fantastic client that is simple and easy to use. Their connections are solid and are relatively fast, and the service offers strong encryption across all servers.

However, I didn’t like the price plans and thought that the payment options were very slim. In addition, their log policy and rejection of P2P activity is very annoying and hopefully they are improved in the future. Despite this, I would still recommend this VPN.